Cycling Blues!!!!

DonDaddyD

Yesterday, I experienced a moment of cycling bliss, I was left on my own. The road ahead headed left, then curled and headed right and then went straight. Up this long straight was Jash, turning out of vision. Followed by Attica, ITB and Linsen and Bass further behind.

Tired, cold, broken, in pain, frustrated with me and my bike, I had nothing but this road to myself. This was the final stretch of the Marlborough Loop. No car's, no traffic lights and nothing else to think about but getting on with it.

I dipped my head and lost myself to the one thing I've always enjoyed ever since I was 10yrs old living in Brixton and tearing the streets up on a Raleigh Even more Extreme. I just rode my friggen bike!

God, I love and have always loved the British Countryside. Such a contrast to what I am use to and what I know, but the peace it brings is golden. Yesterday, riding so close to the fields - a novelty for me - bought about moments of absolute clarity and perspective. Had it been any warmer I'd have got off my bike sat down in a field and just gazed at the miles of beautiful landscape.

Unlike a holiday, Sunday's bike ride is hard to walk away from because it's possible for me to up shop and leave the city to live in the sticks. It is that possibility that is torturous. So, here I am sitting at work, in effing Camberwell, bored. It's all I can do to stop myself throwing middle fingers up at everyone and walking out.

How do you deal with the withdrawal symptoms of having had such a great experience and wonderful time on a bike only to return to work?

The Chingford Skinhead

Like endless days of sunshine, you only appreciate them when it rains. As the cliche goes - and a cliche is a cliche because it is true - the grass always appears greener on the other side.

I've got family out in rural Ireland who will tell you that the peace and tranquility you experienced is boring boring boring and that they long to move to a big city with lights, and 24 hour shops blah blah blah.

Rather than fret, smile to yourself. For that job is what pays for you to enjoy another little Escape in a few weeks time

Cheer up man!

linsen

Just busy yourself planning the next adventure

il_principe

DonDaddyD wrote:

How do you deal with the withdrawal symptoms of having had such a great experience and wonderful time on a bike only to return to work?

By taking a duvet day!

Kenjaja1

If you han't spent so much time writing lyrically about a nice ride you could have clocked up five more miles :twisted:

On a (slightly) more seious note
The Utopea you dream about is not in the town or the countryside. It is in hidden deep inside your head. When you were enjoying your ride, it stopped hiding for a brief instant and (now that it is hiding again) you mourn its loss.

Just keep riding and it will reappear from time to time as often as you allow it to.

I know about this as I first had those joyous bike moments about 50 years ago when my dad taught me to ride a bike. Occasionally they return and are every bit as good now as when I was a lad. However, as the Chingford Skinhead has said, you miss those glorious moments when they are not happening and you would not appreciate them if they happened all the time.

itboffin

By knowing that there's no way on earth you'll ever experience weather like yesterday in London

Come back on a sunny day then you'd really get depressed when you leave, worked on me. As the old advert said "I liked it so much I bought the company"

DonDaddyD

This is crazy I did all my work for the day. (meh Marketing/event planning and writing comes easy).

Now I'm setting targets:

Based on yesterday's ride I need to figure out what I need to improve.

Hill climbs. I will have words with Dark Hill on Friday.

Lose weight. Need to shed as close to 2-3 stone as possible.

Long rides and stamina. I need to build those slow muscles and overall strength.

The goal:

Capital to Coast or Highclere.

No more duvet days for me.

Adventures. With a wedding this weekend and a birthday next weekend I'm going to need to plan Richmond Park carefully (am definantely going). Beyond that a bike rack and a map is going to have to be a must.

DonDaddyD

By knowing that there's no way on earth you'll ever experience weather like yesterday in London

You know I actually enjoyed the weather.. In a wierd way it echoed my frustrated and tormented soul grinding up those hills. :shock:

linsen

Hills?

Jamey

As has been mentioned, yin needs yang and vice versa. You wouldn't have any concept of "good" if there was no "bad" to compare it against. It's the contrast that makes things memorable, otherwise they'd be the same as all the other experiences/days/months.

Nothing stands out against the rest unless it's different.

itboffin

DonDaddyD & Linsen
you both need to seek medical help ASAP

linsen

itboffin wrote:

DonDaddyD & Linsen
you both need to seek medical help ASAP

pourquoi?

roger_merriman

your up with the wombles in wimbledon? thats well within reach of the surrey lanes, which are beautiful ancient land if very tamed.

have you not gone up box hill, you know it's the law any cyclist in the SE must go at least once a year.

itboffin

roger merriman wrote:

your up with the wombles in wimbledon? thats well within reach of the surrey lanes, which are beautiful ancient land if very tamed.

have you not gone up box hill, you know it's the law any cyclist in the SE must go at least once a year.

yeh yeh i've been to box hill, hill!?! pah :P

Bassjunkieuk

DDD - I feel your pain! As we have already discussed this on our car journey there and back I don't really think I can add more. Both me and my wife are most certainly country people. We feel truly at home when at her fathers place which makes ITB's place look urban, they only have 2 houses as neighbours and the sheep outnumber the people!!!
Admittedly my road bike would be as useful as a chocolate teapot on the dirt track down to the house but the roads in the area are pretty much like we rode on yesterday and he's only a short hop from the Welsh border!

Of course having said that I still compare his living to mine and given the peace and quiet of the countryside versus the noise and activity of a busy London suburb it's a bit of a no-brainer! But then when I consider other things like needing to drive 15 minutes to get a kebab and having to allow a certain amount of petrol in the tank to get to the nearest filling station I realize maybe I'm not fully ready to leave the town yet!

Thankfully from where I live I'm 15 minutes ride from East Croydon station (which is right on top of my parents place!) so I could easily hop on a train to all manor of lovely Surrey or coastal areas or even just ride my damn bike South to find some great lanes or up to Richmond Park - both of which I fully intend to try over the coming years as I can't see myself moving anytime soon, not at least until my numbers turn up on a Saturday evening ;-)

Kieran_Burns

I live in a village of 2500 people. I'm 5 minutes from country lanes in any direction and am in the bottom of a valley so it's FLAT.

I have a 1 hour commute into the City (45 mins to the edge) through country lanes, a bridleway and busy suburban and urban roads.

I have two major cycle routes within spitting distance (54 and 6) my village has a petrol station, railway station, co-op, pubs and a truckers cafe.

Oh My God.

I'm in paradise. :shock:

itboffin

Kieran_Burns wrote:

I live in a village of 2500 people. I'm 5 minutes from country lanes in any direction and am in the bottom of a valley so it's FLAT.

I have a 1 hour commute into the City (45 mins to the edge) through country lanes, a bridleway and busy suburban and urban roads.

I have two major cycle routes within spitting distance (54 and 6) my village has a petrol station, railway station, co-op, pubs and a truckers cafe.

Oh My God.

I'm in paradise. :shock:

We're going to need photographic evidence of that claim

Kieran_Burns

I thought you would :P So I was off getting this:

http://maps.google.co.uk/?ie=UTF8&ll=52 ... 2&t=h&z=14

Village of Hatton. Top of Station Rd is the Salt Box Cafe - best proper chips and a cup of tea you could hope for. You can see the Railway Station at the bottom of the Village (Co-Op is just there) and all the GREEN!

Cycling Dave

DonDaddy. You have a key to a world that the people you work with will never know; the sheer unbridled joy of riding a bike. The full sensory experience; the forming of a relationship with the region/country in which you are riding.
Be proud that you feel the way you do. There are too many people who don't have anything in their lives which means so much to them, that they wish to escape to. It's a passion that will not only prolong your life but will enrich it.
I feel pissed off in work (off work just now, but more frustrated that due to 3 fractured vertebrae I'm off the bike for 8weeks) being stuck indoors when I'd much rather be in the middle of nowhere (easy to reach from heavily urban East Kilbride), out of the saddle on my favourite climb.
There's one part of my route that I always stop. I can hear nothing but the breeze, and from where I'm standing you can see nothing but forests and fields.
I feel priveleged that I have that. It's mine. It's more valuable than any treasure (except a shiny Ti frame) and fulfills and nourishes my soul to the extent that I see it as essential as food is to my body.
So what I'm trying to say is that we're all party to a secret world of spiritual and sensual enrichment, and have a sense of clarity that the drones who go from work, to home, to crap telly, to mindless acquisition of things in an attempt to fill a spiritual void of which they are vaguely aware, may never have.
This knowledge alone sustains me when I'm in work and not riding.

Hope that helps.

David

roger_merriman

itboffin wrote:

roger merriman wrote:

your up with the wombles in wimbledon? thats well within reach of the surrey lanes, which are beautiful ancient land if very tamed.

have you not gone up box hill, you know it's the law any cyclist in the SE must go at least once a year.

yeh yeh i've been to box hill, hill!?! pah :P

oh it's not a hard hill by any means, but the road name is great zig zag, i was born and grew up in the breacon beacons so i'm well aware that this isn't not big lumps of land, the house i rent out in wales is higher than leith hill, and its at the bottom of the valley...

but the downs are easy to get to from southern london and provide good biking, even MTB.

[Tim]

Get a job you love? or at least like?

I spent Saturday flying with tail winds up to a family wedding 100km away then Sunday fighting my way back against the hail, wind and rain. Then came into work early Monday and today because I have an exciting project doing a job I love.

Best of both worlds.